of me. my wife knows how hard i work to provide four my family and our future. my mom and my dad before he pass away are most proud i was committed to my family first, my wife and children. that was the most important part. >> you hinted before that your family, your parents in particular, you're one of nine kid, they tried to sort of keep you in line but clearly weren't that successful. what you have learned as a parent from that experience? obviously it's easier for you. >> well, my parents both worked two jobs and were never hardly home and we were left to our own devices. you go outside and trouble is everywhere. for us the focus is to a, keep them busy and be involved in every aspect of their lives. talk to them about everything. it's obviously the most important role i'll ever play is father and husband and i will not fail. >> your wife doesn't like you doing sex scenes. >> yes. >> so your character -- >> for do i. >> so the character probably had to have one and did you a deal

not to have one but the deal was you would still appear naked on screen; is that right? >> yeah, how did you hear about that? >> tell me about the deal. >> well, i waited until we were kind of in the film and i kept talking to the director going, you know, these guys have been going out for seven year, they don't really have that kind of sex anymore. she's an actress in the movie and she has a sex wheel with everyone else that makes me go wild, i fall off the wagon, ruin her evening and become a complete mess. but i don't think we really need that. maybe a kiss but it's not like it's hot and heavy like it was when they met. he knew something was up. so there was this other scene at the end where i have to take a bath, it's supposed to be a shot of me in the shower and you saw this head and trying to upaway this dearth and filthy just

experienced and cleanse myself before i go to prison. >> the deal was to keep your wife happy? >> yes. it's just uncomfortable and awkward. i wouldn't want to see her doing that and i don't like doing it. >> and you've worked with some of the great now in hollywood. what have you learned about acting? who do you really rate out there in the acting world? >> daniel day lewis, russell crowe, denzel washington. >> what does it take to make a great actor? what makes the difference between a good actor and great actor? >> there are different actors. there are the matinee idol beautiful actor and the kind of more real, gritty guys that i identify with. i grew up watching steve mcqueen, james cagney, john garfield, robert ryan, guys like that. i couldn't really connect to the carey grants of the world. but for me it's just somebody

that tries to make it real. i think less is more. i think you need to play parts that you're believable in. that helps. >> are you sad "entourage" is over? >> very. >> i'm distraught. >> it was bitty sweet. we never thought the show would last that long. the fact that it did you almost felt it will never end. but then it came to an end. we're pushing hard to get the movie made. >> people say to me it can't be like that. i say it is like that. >> that was really the toned down version, certainly of what my life used to be when i was young and crazy. >> what could you think of the basic shallowness of hollywood, the fact that if you're a hot star, everyone's calling all over you, kissing ass. the moment it goes cold, boom. >> that's why you need people around you that will keep you grounded. people say why do you have your friends around? when i'm working on a movie, i like to hire my friends. if i'm going to hire someone tolls do the job, why not hire

someone i know and trust and has my best interests at heart. >> what's the big dream role for you, if there's one out there and you get the chance? >> play you. >> really? >> i don't know. i haven't really thought about it. >> let's take a break and come back and talk about your foundation, get into the detail. how you're trying to stop kids opting out of school is the main tenor of this.

. one of the leading factors in a teen's future success, a high school diploma. too bad nearly one in three u.s. teens fails to graduate. that's within teen dropping out nearly every 26 seconds. what can one person do to help? takes just $1 to help create a lasting change in a teen's life. just one person can help empower those teens with the skills necessary to help a teen get to graduation. are you the one? >> this is specifically to end dropout rates in schools. the stats are incredible. 7,200 kids a day drop out of school. what i found really absorbing was when you get down to the reasons they give. the number one reason, getting a job, supporting themselves or their families, not be able to keep up with school work, boredom, negative peer pressure, lack of support, motivation,

safety and bullying. a third of the kids that drop out actually is almost from necessity. they need money. how do you tackle that? as a government, if you're president obama and you're trying to deal with this obviously huge problem, what do you do about that problem that, part of it, the need to finance a family? >> well, it's extremely difficult. you look at the economy and the way it is. when i was going to school, i knew how to read, write, add and subtract. i basically said what else do i need? i'm not going to be able to go to college, i'm not going to be able to get a scholarship. i might as well quit school now and start working. i started working at 14. a lot of families are faced with that on a daily basis, single-parent homes, they have multiple siblings. i think if i had the answer to that kwerks i'd be in the office. >> is it a slight problem for you when you face these kids and

they know what you did and they, well, look at you, you dropped out and went to prison and now you're this billion dollar movie star. >> and i say the odds of you doing that are slim to none. let's start with an education, get an education so you have something to fall back on. if i fail and my career ends tomorrow, i don't have anything to fall back on. i'm going to be send mieg kid out to wo -- sending my kid out to work. they get it. they live in that world so they get it. they know. but i also tell them that if there's anything you want to do, i am proof can you do that but i don't think dropping out of school today is the best idea. it's not a sprint, it's a marathon. if you can get the highest education possible, get it. then if you want to pursue your dreams, go ahead. >> we were talking about the sim larp tease in your life and matt

damon. heap has a big passion about education and heap also has four young kids. you say you get mistaken for him quite a lot and he for you? >> yeah. we have this thing if somebody else comes up and says "i love you in "the bourne," i say thank you. and they say are you mat damon? i said no, i'm brad pitt. we both have a similar approach to our job, it's our job. other than that we wanted to be left alone and be with our families. >> he seems like a very adjusted person in life. he works hard to keep that, stay in his marriage, his kid and so on. you seem to have come to that place as well. >> yeah. >> how important has your wife been to you? >> the most important person in my life. she's my whole world. she's a wonderful mother, a wonderful life. all of her focus is on the kids.

she supports me in every single way. we have a great thing going. >> what's the future holding for you in sn what's in the pipeline? >> a lot of different things. i'm trying to build up my business both in producing film and television and working on a lot of businesses outside of the entertainment industry. i always felt like careers can be very short lived. you don't know how long they're going to last and i want to build something i can have for my families. we launched wahlbergers, have another restaurant. have i to come on your show in a couple months to talk about my new sports nutrition line. we're going to be in gncs in the spring and in the sumner select mass stores. >> what's the idea behind that? >> we want people to live a healthy lifestyle. i've always worked out and tried to maintain -- stay in shape. we want to motivate people to stay in shape and be at their best. we partnered up with gnc.

doesn't get any better than those guy. >> when you look back over the amazing career you've had, all the twists and turns, if i had the power to let you relive one moment again, what would you choose? >> i would probably choose not quitting school because that's when everything started to go downhill. that's when the drugs and the violence and all that stuff started to happen. so -- because i can't really pick one other than that because there was thousands that i should -- a thousand things that i should have changed. >> that moment ended up being one of the great pivotal moments for you. >> i agree. you asked me. eight tough question to ask somebody who has been through a lot. >> how do you feel having got to 40, you're alive, you're healthy, you're happily married, you've got lovely children.

a lot of people you knew in the old days presumably either in jail or dead. you've said that already. how do you feel? >> blessed. very blessed. the luckiest guy in the world. and i'm happy. i'm just happy. if my career ended today, i'd be fine because i'm so happy. i've seen and done so much, you know. my family's the most important thing. >> what do you think your dad would have made of the mark wahlberg sitting in front of me now? >> he was long enough to see me turn it around. his proudest moment was when i got nominated for the oscar for "the departed." i called him and he said you used to call me to tell me you got this much amount of money to make a movie and now you can consider yourself an actor. he used to love movie. >> he got it. in that moment he understood you were a bona fide success story.

>> so he came to the set of "the departed" and met jack. and it was a thrill for him. >> it was a thrill for me. >> thank you. >> come back. we'll talk about your nutrition program. >> coming up, we'll talk about the the famous tuscany airmen and how it was to get the movie made. ameriprise financial has worked for their clients' futures. helping millions of americans retire on their terms. when they want. where they want. doing what they want. ameriprise. the strength of a leader in retirement planning. the heart of 10,000 advisors working with you one-to-one. together for your future. ♪

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sign up, we get shiny boots, a uniform, that would be the end of a hundred years of bigotry. you're colored men in a white man's army. it's a miracle, you're flying fighters in italy and not mopping latrines in milwaukee. >> that's cuba gooding, jr. they were the first ever black u.s. military pilots. joining me is cuba gooding june and his co-star terence. i love this because here are the parallels to the making of the movie. here you have george lucas, a very fame oushs very white hollywood legend, with a tan, almost playing the role of this very brave colonel, knnoel pari

in the movie. lucas has put a lot of well known black actors in this movie and hollywood instinctively was like this isn't going to work. he's saying i'm going to back my judgment, i'm going to back my money, i believe this will work. exactly the same kind of audacious move that colonel parish took. when you made the movie, did you feel that as you were making it, that this was life coming forward in a different way but a similar kind of struggle? >> one of the things that he said when he first arrived in prague, he said remember, i'm not making a civil rights movie right here. i'm making a film about heros, this is not about victims. this is a film about heros. and that was what he impressed us with. so having braved that battle and he didn't realize the battle he was going to have. he figured he would shoot the

movie, it would be a great action film here, would take it to fox, to the studios and the studios would go nuts and say we should have backed you from the start. take it to the first one, they say we don't know how to market it. >> said it's an action movie with an all-black cast. it is. they're absolutely right. >> but that shouldn't matter, should it? >> it shouldn't matter. >> why are we still saying things like that? it's a black president for god sakes. but it has and the battle goes on. the movie is coming out, it's a $58 million movie. >> it's more than that. you phu took $58 million and tried to make $58 million, it would be a lot more. you had the owner saying he spent $58 million. he had all the resources. it has 16,000 visual effect shots in it. it's a huge budget. >> cuba, tell me what you feel about george lucas in doing this? >> i would kiss him right in the

mouth. i'd be one man kiss another man right in his mouth. i'm serious. >> what he lent himself to, i mean, this was a 23-year passion project. >> that's right. >> and then after making this film and taking it to the first studio and then they say no, he goes to the other six studios and hears the same thing. >> here's the thing, remember, this is is a roller coaster ride. i don't know if you've seen the movie yet. it's visually stunning, okay. and a lot of the exploits of what the air men went through, he couldn't tell that whole tale. so what does he do? he puts together a two-hour documentary called "double victory." he's just going to put that out everywhere this weekend. >> for people watching this who haven't seen the movie and don't know much about the tuskegee airmen, tell me why they're so important. >> because they represent african-americans' contributions to the war efforts of world war ii. they did bomber escort over the skies of berlin.

>> and they ultimately had their own bomber squadron. >> but the significance was until they went up, there had been no black u.s. military pilots? >> that's right. >> at all. this led to the integration of the u.s. military. >> they kicked off the civil rights movement. >> what was so good about the tuskegee airmen, whereas most white pilots would have three months of training before they would be shipped out into the middle of the fight, but the black pilots didn't have anyone who would take them so they have two and a half years of training. so the moment they got into the air, they were aces. >> and they shot down a hundred german planes, played a major part in the american war effort. >> at the beaches of normandy, which allowed the invasion to take place. >> and you guys actually met some of the surviving tuskegee air men, right? >> we had over 30 something screenings. we've screened at the pentagon -- >> what kind of men are they? >> they're strong, 94-year-old

warriors is what they are. >> disciplined. >> disciplined and so charismatic still. roscoe brown, he was here. we've been with him, the doctor, all day today. he shakes your hand you're like, oh, ease up, brother, ease up. >> lee archer. >> not with us any longer. >> they didn't go into school thinking i'm going to become a pilot. they went to school to become doctors or lawyers. they just happened to for the same of contributing to the country decided to become pilots and happened to be marvelously brilliant at it. >> let look at a clip from this remarkable film. >> we count our victories by the bombers we get to their targets, by the husbands we return to their wives, by the fathers we get back to their children. what has not changed, what will never change from the last plane to the last bullet to the last minute to the last man we fight,

we fight. >> yes, sir! >> i hope everyone goes to watch this. i think it's important they do. does it shock you that hollywood is still so antiquated and i would say borderline racist in the way it has treated this movie so far. is this shocking? >> no, it's par for the course. any time you're trying to change barriers, break barriers and break a fiduciary established means of trading money or saying who should receive money, especially in an economically -- an economic -- what is this word -- >> temperature -- >> the atmosphere that we're in right now is frightening. and there's very little oxygen left to go around. >> so nobody wants to take a risk and they're looking for i guess in the case of this movie an excuse not to take the risk

and the easy excuse is we can't sell a black movie. that's what they're basically saying. >> right. >>s that why it so important that this movie is watched and so successful. i've seen george lucas get very passionate about it. he doesn't care about anything other than eyeballs. he wants people to watch it and understand how important these men are. >> a did that diver movie and people have come up to me and said i love that diver movie. this story will help build up the american brand again. no matter what color you are, being an american is cool. they explain how something like a president barack obama can happen. we were saying this earlier -- >> hold that very thought. let's have a quick break and come back and talk about barack obama because himself anointment as president of this country

should have been an incredible transform atory moment. was it? that's what i want to know.

. i'm don lemon. here are your headlines this hour. police have arrested some 19 protesters at a massive occupy oakland protest. the occupiers called this move-in day. but police ruled it an unlawful

assembly and moved to contain the crowd. police did use smoke and tear gas on the crowd. we'll have much more on this story at the top of hour in just about ten minutes here on cnn. a medicaltories out of leroy, new york. at least 15 high school students are suffering from an illness that cause them to have uncontrollable twitching and verbal outbursts. now environmental activist erin brockovich is getting involved. she said a 1970 trail derailment caused a dangerous chemical spill just three mile from the future site of the high school. she's conducting her own investigation and believes the bed rock and ground water could be contaminated. >> a wave of violence in syria has left at least 98 dead today. this video is said to be from homes, though cnn can't confirm the authenticity of this video. we'll have more for you at the top of the hour on cnn. those are your headlines for

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♪ >> show me the money. show me the money. >> i need to feel you, jerry. >> show me the money! >> jerry, you better yell. >> that's cuba gooding jr., one

of my favorite movie lines ever, and terrence howard, nominated for an es ck oscar film. this movie should. be ground breaking. this is what frustrates me. we shouldn't have to talk about this as a black movie. but we're having to because george lucas, a white guy, takes this movie to sell to his own in hollywood and hits the race barrier. that's what happened. are you surprised we're three years after president barack obama is elected, and you're still having to have this kind of battle in a place like hollywood? >> absolutely. >> you would think since obama broke the ground that the world would be wide open. but once the ground is broken, you still have to plow that land. that's what george lucas is doing right now, he's plowing that land. and some of those rocks are still there and you have to

break them down. >> that's right. >> but the film stands for itself. >> that's right. >> i think morgan freeman taught me never to use "african-american," just call me an actor or black actor. and i respect him for that. but do you believe since barack obama was elected, america has become more or less racist? >> i hope -- i'm an optimist, so less racist. i have to say that. let me just give you a quick story. i was in france and these two frenchman came up to me, and they said, can i ask you something personal? how does it happen that a black man is the head of such a racist nation? i didn't know how to respond to them, because it really got me to thinking. if you think about it, when i grew up, i didn't know that there were tuskegee airman.

so you have the color purple, you have "glory," other stores being told. this is an african-american action film that tells about black heroes in history. and i think that, to me, is why this film is so healing for our foreigners. >> i don't think it's become more or less racist. i think now it's shown itself. before you didn't have to deal -- >> that's my sense. it just brought it back to the fore. the race issue has become much more widespread and much more public because of a black president and that may not be a bad thing. >> because now you can deal with it. >> now it can be properly debated. >> and you look at george lucas, with -- until he tried to make a quote unquote black film or put black stars in an action movie, he didn't understand what it was like. his girlfriend, melody, she's black. but she said to him, you did not

understand what it was like until he tried to put this film out there. and without the other $100 million resources that he had to go and promote his own movie, this movie would have suffered the same failure that other films have. but because george can back up his own -- boy, i want to say a word i can't say right now. >> he has a passion. and he also has two black children. cuba gooding jr. and terrence record, howard, we're his two black kids. >> how do you think barack obama has been doing? >> it's a hard job. he was put in the white house with the economy falling apart, and a bunch of troops over there fighting a losing battle. and he said, i'm going to bring them home. he did, all right?

he's bringing them home. and i'm not -- to me, i'm an actor first, so i'm not taking any sides. >> he's been forced to make so many compromises, and still because of trying to clean up the mess that was before him, he hasn't been in a position to do the things that he had set forth in his campaign. now, if he had another opportunity, perhaps he would be able to handle that. but with all of the things that these new bills that's been passed -- i've been the biggest barack obama supporter from the start. but i know that his heart is in the right place, but my god, how do you deal with all of the pressures coming from everywhere? >> it's almost an impossible job. i don't know why anyone would want to be president. the pressure coming in with the whole world going crazy, obama mania. he could never live up to that in this economic environment.

i think he has been a bit -- he hasn't dealt with the republicans in a strong enough way or dealt with getting stuff done. he hasn't had his own mission statement and driven it through. i suspect if he wins the next election, you'll see a very different barack obama. >> absolutely. i don't agree with everything he's said and done but you can't deny his accomplishments as an african-american man. >> i believe where his heart is at, but when you're dealing with a bipartisan world, it's not even america, it's not the government, you're dealing with a bipartisan world, where everyone is pulling at each other. i think we all need to either stand behind him or grab somebody and stand behind them or we need to do it as a whole. >> doesn't this movie, doesn't that show you that you have to have courage? >> that's right. >> you have to have an instinct for taking a big gamble and for

pushing against that kind of partisan view, doesn't it? >> the movie starts the healing process, absolutely. that's why you should see it. >> it's been fascinating talking about it. i think it's a terrific movie. it's an important film. thank you both very much. >> thank you. what is causing high school students to erupt with uncontrollable outbursts and ticks. >> i got worse and started twitching. >> now, activist erin brockovich on the case, turning up the heat for answers. and a popular annual college competition, making news this year for the band not attending. and we take you inside the

devastated neighborhood surrounding japan's infamous fukushima nuclear power plant. you won't believe your eyes. at last, remembering etta james. the legendary lady with the voice to match.